Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl.

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

K:

This has been a VERY hyped book, and I am so happy to say that Cinder deserves all of the hype! It was such a breath of fresh air.

Most of you probably already know that this is a Cinderella retelling based on the title and cover, and you can see the Cinderella-esqe aspects to it. It had the evil step mom, the evil sisters, the prince, and the ball (which was my favourite part).However, Marissa Meyer was able to do so much more. She put such a refreshing spin by incorporating sci fi. The world building was beautifully done, the technological terms aren’t overdone so it isn’t headache-inducing, and the characters are just so light and funny!

Marissa Meyer did a great job of creating characters whom you can’t help but route for. My favourites were Cinder, Iko, and Kai (*swoon*). They all had such great chemistry and witty dialogue, making the book all the more enjoyable.

I do agree when people say that this book is predictable because I was able to guess the plot twist. The thing is, I don’t care. This book was just so fun and action-packed, and I don’t think it deserves a star down because of it. This is one of my all time favourite books, and it deserves nothing less than my rating of:

I wasn’t able to function after this.

N:

I’ve had this in my to-read list for almost a year and only got around to reading it late December as an eBook then proceeded to buy a hard copy after finishing the entire series because I fell soooo in love with the story as it progressed.

Cinder is a loose retelling of Cinderella with a modern twist as our main character is actually a cyborg! It was pretty cool how Marissa Meyer thought of the idea of mixing classic fairytale with modern technology. I found myself feeling really nostalgic whenever I got to see the glimpses of fairytale Cinderella as I read along.

In terms of world building, Marissa did it in a way where you didn’t really realize you were getting information about the setting–in short, reading is was really easy! As someone who’s not that techy, the cyborg-bioelectricity-spaceship mechanics didn’t baffle me as I thought it would have. I had no difficulty whatsoever in absorbing the milieu and found myself finishing the book within a day and getting severely attached to the characters.

The characters of Cinder were very interesting because we see how it adopted the Cinderella-ness of the book. We have Adri as the stepmother, Pearl and Peony as the stepsisters, Iko as Cinder’s lone friend–Iko wasn’t a mouse though; she was an android. Close enough, yeah?–and Kai as Cinder’s prince charming. The character developments of Cinder, Kai, and Iko were really satisfying to read!

The only thing I didn’t like about the book was that I saw the “twist” coming from a mile away. Am I the only one?!? If there’s one thing I love more than books, it’s books with plot twists that I totally did not see coming. Other than that small bump, everything was a-okay.

As a starter book for a series, Cinder was really good and I can only tell you that the series gets better! I recommend you pick this up. Oh, stars.

I loved this book so much! I listened to most of it in audio format and am so glad that I did because the narrator was fantastic. I am going to be rereading this one in 2018 so I can continue with the series because it has been so long. Really enjoyed your review 🙂